The Space Between The Stars
by honorableotp
Summary: Mikaelson bonding in the de Martel era "Do they die, or do they sit there forever? One day, will they be our only companions left?"


They all find themselves with nothing to do one night, which is peculiar for the roles they are living.

There is no communication between the five of them, nothing arranging where or when to meet; they merely find each other

Just like when they were children- when they were human.

Rebekah is the first one there. She is always the first one to do anything; to speak, to cry, to love, to hate.

Klaus and Elijah meet halfway and move as one, silent, their hands brushing.

They find Rebekah, her blonde hair spread across the lush grass in all directions. Klaus lays on one side, Elijah on the other, their heads not far apart.  
They look at the sky.

Kol is next, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth and brushing his hair away from his face. He stands next to Elijah, stretching out his arms like a bird. His head blocks the moonlight and Elijah swears he could be a god. With no warning, except for the knowledge that Kol had always done this, he falls backward, weightless. His arm hits Elijah in the face on the way down, Elijah rolling his eyes and rubbing his face, out of habit more than an effort to comfort pain.

Kol has always been the loudest, in everything he does. He has never been silent in his life.  
He lets out a groan and stretches, bending his elbows and using his large palms to rest his head. He begins to hum the song their mother used to sing to them.

That is what brings Finn to them, smelling of Sage. He lays next to Kol, breathing in the smell of the blood he so desperately tries to hate.

They almost form a star, beaten and abused yet somehow still beautiful. Rebekah's legs are spread, so wide that her left ankle rests on the calf of Elijah's crossed legs, her other foot just below Klaus' shin; one of his legs raised so that the sole of his foot pressed against the side of his knee. Kol lays with his leg straight up in the air, reaching for the moon he knows he will one day touch, still humming. Against the dark night, Finn is casket ready, legs straight and arms crossed across his chest, eyes unblinking.

The space between Klaus and Finn is large, compared to the distance between the rest of them. Large enough to fit a small, adolescent body.

The night screams Henrik's name, Kol's humming nearly blocked out.  
They had not done this since he died.

He would lay on his stomach, head propped on his hands and legs crossed in the air. He would watch his siblings stare at the clouds, muttering about their shapes.

He had never really cared to look.

"There are _so_ many stars." Rebekah notes with a hint of wonder in her voice.  
"Do you think they are cool to the touch? It seems like it would be freezing out there." Questions Kol, pulling apart a blade of grass.

It had always been Henrik who would speak the words that would make them think, whose answers would truly bond them.

This time it is Finn, voice raw and exhausted; he does not feed enough.

"Do they die, or do they sit there forever? One day, will they be our only companions left?" No one can answer, too terrified of the thought that one day the five of them might be the only life left on earth.

So, he speaks again.

"Do you ever wonder why we were born? And why, after we died, we were reborn into this… _curse_ ," He throws the word out bitterly, "of eternal life?"  
They are all quiet, pondering this sour thought from their desolate sibling.

Rebekah, of course, is the first one to speak.

"Love." She sighs. "The universe needed to do a little more to get us to our soulmates is all. It's still doing work for most of us."

"Hmmm," Kol's humming turns into a single, solid, flat note of thought. After a moment he ceases and grins a wild, mad grin. "To have fun. A whole forever of chaos."  
A manic laugh follows, and it is heard all the way at the castle.

"To better ourselves." Says Elijah, causing Klaus to roll his eyes. "We have eternity to recognize our flaws, improve our morals."  
"You are fools, my dear brothers." He huffs out. "We were born for _power._ "  
The hungry way in which he says it makes Elijah shudder.

Oh, how he had changed.

They all hear their sister's dramatic huff.

"I suppose you are in the right, Rebekah," Klaus lies, partially to make her feel better, partially to give Elijah false hope for his redemption, and partially because it is true.

Although he loves Aurora, there is something else. Something truly worthy of being his eternal companion.

He has a soulmate; his name is power, and nothing makes the hybrid feel the way he does.

Klaus tries to make himself feel guilty he does not love Aurora as much as he loves power, but is unsuccessful.

"Damn right I am."

Perhaps this is the last night they spend as a family- none of them can recall. But they can recall Kol's pealing laughter before he falls asleep, and Finn's comments that somehow fail to bring the mood down. They remember Rebekah's crude jokes and Elijah's constant reprimanding; they remember Klaus saying all the right things to console them, even if no one else noticed the pettiest, smallest shot of hurt run through them.

Klaus remembers being the last one awake, staring longingly at the full moon, feeling the anxious thrum in his bones which cannot yet break into his those of a wolf.

He remembers hearing movement and turning his head back, remembers seeing an all-too real vision of Henrik in his spot, laughing with his mouth wide, eyes full of joy. Klaus freezes with his neck craned back, straining his hears for the sound of laughter that is not there.

He stares for a while at the memory, finally looking away when the first tear falls down his cheek.

When he glances back, the apparition is gone.  
Every time Klaus closes his eyes and feels sleep pulls at his mind, Henrik is there waiting for him. Not the laughing, beautiful Henrik that fades a little more from his mind each day. No, his mind is far too twisted for that. The Henrik waiting for Klaus is bloodied, stomach ripped open and claw marks over his face. He wakes up each time, a terrified gasp and a rapidly beating heart consuming him.

This is the night Klaus realizes something he, deep down, had already known; he is irrevocably broken.

This is the night he starts to embrace it.


End file.
